Feb 22, 2012

This Doesn't Look Good

As the federal workforce endures a two-year freeze on basic pay rates and faces a possible increase in pension payments and as new employees will have to contribute more to their retirement program, Barbara Murchison has reason to smile.

As we reported in January, Murchison was reassigned from her team leader position at Social Security’s main office in Woodlawn, Md., in 2001. The agency conceded that she had been discriminated against, for reasons of race, age and sex, among others, after a ruling by an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) administrative judge. SSA agreed to give Murchison her gig back but did not.

Social Security, however, erroneously said it had restored Murchison to her position, and the EEOC accepted that false assurance.

This left Murchison in limbo. She fought to get her job back even after the District Court ruled against her at least in part because the EEOC did not issue a formal finding that the SSA had not followed the EEOC’s order to restore Murchison. She took it to the Court of Appeals, whose opinion really makes the Social Security Administration look bad. The opinion said the lower court’s decision and the EEOC’s acceptance of Social Security assurances were based on “what can only be deemed a deceptive and false assertion of compliance made by the SSA.” ...

In January, an SSA statement said that “we deny all of the allegations made by Ms. Murchison about the agency, and we expect to prevail” in the case.

Business as usual is the truth. SSA historically has been taken to arbitration and court, lost case after case for various reasons, and when it came time to implement, their response is--so what, make me. cases are litigated over and over, wasting taxpayer mmoney to a ridiculous degree. SSA officials who are responsible for implementing unfavorable decisions should be held in contempt of court or have their pay garnished to pay the costs.

Lots of "should be" above, but at the end of the day, this is Big Brother we're talking about. Who's going to tell them what to do? They have no fear of puny mortals and their "courts." They are the US government and can do whatever the heck they please. Truly, business as usual.